I’m increasingly finding one of my favoured modes of leisure to be a book and a wine bar. Were I to open a wine bar in retirement, decades from now, I’d be fine running it at cost, counting the company and conversation as compensation enough. Swap that to a subsistence model in a low-cost locale, and the business still holds.
It's super low-end, but she's really nice. I don't go to her town very often, but I always stop by and give her $50 for 40 used paperbacks. We talk about them at the checkout, and she knows every one.
I know it's heresy to say on HN, but it's been my observation that there are a lot of people who run businesses not to get rich, but to enrich themselves.
I completely understand this. If you have money, why not run a business that either breaks even or loses a sustainably low amount of money? Making money for the sake of making money is as absurd as chasing political power for the sake of holding political power. Both involve confusing a means for an end. Money and power are only worthwhile if you can use them for something worthwhile that you care about. Otherwise, what's the point of putting in all that effort to obtain a means if you don't actually want to use it for something?
Yes. Aperitif at a cafe in Italy scratches the same itch.